Running the Rat Race

Has anyone seen where February went?  I turned my back for just a minute, and now it's gone...!  So far, March seems to be racing away too.

So, a quick recap of the last few days:

Saturday: breakfast with my honey, followed by umpteen loads of laundry, cleaning the bedroom, and FIVE. LONG. HOURS. of cleaning my closet (which before this you literally had to shoulder to get the door shut and to keep a cascade of stuff from tumbling out.  The closet that was NOT messed up by me!  After slaving away for all those hours, I stood there admiring the floor, when Savannah came in to see my handiwork.  Her eyes got really big, and she asked "Oooh, can I hang my stuff in here?!"  I believe my head may have spun round on my shoulders a few times, eyes shooting sparks, as I hissed a very sound "NOOOO!"

Sunday: Church (we were actually ON TIME for the second week in a row! Or maybe they're just starting later.  Whichever... it works for me!).  Home to do 4 hours on a dissertation review, a particular form of torture I regularly inflict upon myself in the hopes of earning a little extra spending money.  This year I am particularly lusting after a Digital SLR camera which, unfortunately, doesn't grow on a tree.  I really enjoy editing (cough * cough * English nerd!), but it seems to be getting harder and harder to give up what little "free" time I do have on the weekends to do the work.  I'd really like them to just give me money, with no particular due-date in mind!

Monday: Just another wild day at work; lunchtime spent meeting Evan at the cell phone store to replace yet another of his cell phones (at least he didn't drop this one in a toilet, instead he left it on the hood of his vehicle and then forgot to pick it up again.  His girlfriend found it smashed to pieces on the road in front of her house); back to work, followed by a grueling workout at the gym. I've "unofficially" committed myself to run a 15K this summer with another crazy friend, so I've been trying to get my sad little self in gear so I won't drop over dead on her come July!  Monday I decided it was time to kick it up a notch, and boy did I feel it.  The sad thing is, I am still sooooo far away from being anywhere near being prepared, and the way time is flying, July will be here the week after next.  If nothing else, I'm pretty sure I can walk 9.6 miles!  Anyway, then a quick run-through at Wal-Mart randomly grabbing ingredients for at least 2 meals since I didn't get grocery shopping done this past weekend; home to cook dinner (baked spaghetti which only Tom and I would eat), then back to do another hour or so on the dissertation review.  Bedtime already?!!!!  Also had a wildly funny thing happen at work, but I'm still trying to figure out if I can blog about it.  Don't want to get in trouble!

Tuesday: Work, lunchtime wherein I ran to the bank and made the house payment, got our "lunch allowance" for the next two weeks, ran to the thrift store to drop off all the clothes and crap miscellaneous from the great closet-cleanout, ran to the used bookstore to drop off all the crap books I cleared from the bookshelves, ran to the local craft store to check out a great sale I had heard about, talked myself out of a Cricut personal cutter because I have to keep my eye on the prize (the camera), bought lunch, made it back to work but had to park in the "Timbuktu" lot, and made it back to my office within 1-hour! More work, followed by my workout at the gym.  Savannah went to a friend's house after school.  When I gave my permission, I told her: "Make sure that R's mom knows that I won't be there 'til almost 7:00 to pick you up."  Her reply? "She already knows."  So when I drive to R's house to pick her up at 6:45, there's nobody there, and nobody answers the phone either. ???  Right as I was getting ready to call again, my cell phone rings.  They had to go into Logan for a function, so they dropped Savannah off at the gym where I no longer was.  Easy misunderstanding, so I drive my gas-guzzler back to town and pick her up.  She looked so tiny and orphan-like sitting inside the doors, forlornly waiting for me.  As we're getting ready to head BACK home again, Savannah reminds me "Don't forget that tomorrow's my play.  And I need a costume."  ACK!  The play was on the Boston Tea Party - where on earth am I going to get a costume for that at 8:00 p.m.?  We high-tailed it to the local thrift store, and with 20-minutes to spare before they closed found a dress that not only looked remarkably like we wanted, but it actually fit well too!  I'm pretty sure God knew I was at my breaking point... ;-)  Home AGAIN, but too late to make dinner so Tom and I had leftover baked spaghetti.  I'm pretty sure the kids scrounged up something, but I was too tired to check.

Wednesday: I arranged with my boss yesterday to take today off so that I could actually accomplish some things that I never get done on the weekends.  I curled Savannah's hair in approximately 357 ringlets for picture day, did 4 loads of laundry; unhooked our computer which has had a broken CD/DVD drive since about 2 weeks after I bought it and took it in for repair, hooked up the old computer (which I'm typing on as we speak.  It didn't take more than about 5 minutes to remember WHY I got the new one as this one sucks.  It has already crashed on me twice in the time it's taken me to type this blog); stopped at the hardware store to find the little "thingies" that hold up shelves in our kitchen pantry (currently a half-empty case of diced tomatoes and cream of mushroom soup is all that's keeping the shelf from collapsing); bought a new rug to go in front of the kitchen sink; downloaded the tax program I bought a month ago so that I can do our taxes; did our taxes; cried quietly over the fact that we're getting $1300 less back this year than we did last year; took Savannah back to school for the "Boston Tea Party" play that they did in support of "Literacy Night," always a chaotic time; bought MickeyD's for the kids' dinner; heated up yet another serving of crap baked spaghetti for me, and here I am.

And now I'm off to bed.  Gee, I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow holds... Sigh.